Samsung Electronics is locked in a feud with its workers over how to share the spoils of the AI-driven semiconductor boom, with unions threatening to call a strike if the chipmaker does not increase wages and bonuses.
Two Samsung unions are demanding the company pay out 15 per cent of each division’s operating profits to workers, as well as raise wages by 7 per cent. They have threatened an 18-day walkout starting on May 21 if these demands are not met.
The dispute comes at a time of surging demand for semiconductors, especially the advanced high-bandwidth memory chips, made by Samsung and others, that AI companies need to run their data centres.